USA

NEW YORK, March 19. /TASS/: Donald Trump Jr. has blasted the refusal of US President Joe Biden’s administration to agree to hold a direct conversation as proposed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a sign of weakness of the United States.

"Putin just challenged Joe Biden to an unscripted live debate. The whole world knows that we have no leadership at the top just an empty suit with a teleprompter (and he can’t even get that right). They look at America’s weakness right now and are salivating," he wrote on Twitter.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The Security Council, yesterday, condemned the escalation in Yemen’s Marib governorate and called for a nationwide cease-fire.

In a press statement, members of the Security Council condemned the escalation in Marib, which places one million internally displaced persons at grave risk, and threatens efforts to secure a political settlement, when the international community is increasingly united to end the conflict.

(Reuters) - In late December, as then-U.S. President Donald Trump falsely alleged that rampant voter fraud caused his Georgia election loss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made an unexpected visit to an Atlanta suburb, hoping to observe an audit of thousands of voter signatures.

Washington, Mar 19 (PTI) The US House of Representatives has passed two key bills that would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, some migrant farmworkers and children whose parents immigrated legally to the country, like those under the H-1B visa programme.

The passage of the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, by the House on Thursday by 228-197 votes, was welcomed by the President Joe Biden, who described it as a critical first step in reforming the country's immigration system.

Atlanta, Mar 19 (AP-PTI) One was new mother taking a rare break from caring for her baby girl. Another was an Army veteran who installed security systems in the Atlanta area.

They were among eight people killed Tuesday in shootings at three metro Atlanta massage parlors. Police have charged a 21-year-old man with the slayings.

Seven of the slain were women, and six of them were of Asian descent.

Washington, Mar 19 (PTI) Five powerful Democratic senators on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to rescind his predecessor Donald Trump's ban on some non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B visa which is popular among Indian IT professionals, saying this creates uncertainties for US employers, their foreign-born professional workers and their families.

In June 2020, Trump instituted Proclamation 10052, halting the processing of non-immigrant H-1B, L-1, H-2B, and J-1 visas, based on the alleged potential risk to the labour market.

ANCHORAGE, the United States, March 18 (Xinhua) -- China has never accepted and will never accept unwarranted accusations from the United States, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Thursday.

The United States should quit its old bad habit of hegemonism and completely abandon its overbearing behavior of interfering in China's internal affairs, Wang said at the start of a high-level strategic dialogue with the United States in the Alaskan city of Anchorage.

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — A man accused of setting a Florida church on fire last year is facing a federal hate crime charge, prosecutors announced Thursday.

A federal grand jury in Orlando returned an indictment Wednesday against Steven Shields, 24, of Dunnellon, according to court records. He’s charged with using fire to commit a felony and intentionally damaging religious property, a hate crime charge that falls under the Church Arson Prevention Act.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has dismissed a Republican attempt to remove California Rep. Eric Swalwell from the House intelligence panel over his contact more than six years ago with a suspected Chinese spy who targeted politicians in the United States.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA completed an engine test firing of its moon rocket Thursday, after the first attempt in January ended prematurely.

This time, the four main engines of the rocket’s core stage remained ignited for the full eight minutes. Applause broke out in the control room at Mississippi’s Stennis Space Flight Center once the engines shut down on the test stand.